Paul Costelloe design firm sees profits increase
Gordon Deegan
Accumulated profits at the design management firm owned by one of Ireland’s best known designers, Paul Costelloe last year increased to €1.71 million.
New accounts filed by Paul Costelloe Design Management Ltd show the company recorded profit after tax and dividends totalling €232,161 for the 12 months to the end of August last. That is double the profit recorded for the previous 12-month period.
The company has delivered consistently strong profits after dividends and after tax over recent years: €184,354 in 2019, €182,173 in 2018, €458,033 in 2017 and €236,649 in 2016.
Employees
The numbers employed remained static at seven with staff costs, including directors’ pay, decreasing from €588,715 to €567,626.
Pay to directors last year declined from €438,315 to €374,841.
The accounts show that €141,350 was payable to one of the company's directors, Gerald Mescal, in respect of financial consultancy, accounting, management and office services provided by his firm.
Costelloe has also benefited from his link-up with Irish owned retail giant, Dunnes Stores with his 'Paul Costelloe Living Studio' range.
However, in the year under review, Mr Costelloe conceded in an interview that his clothing line for Dunnes Stores had been badly hit by the pandemic when he said: “We didn’t anticipate the lockdown being so long."
Costelloe has been a feature on the Irish design landscape for decades and his career highs include designing a uniform for British Airways staff in 1992 that remained in service for a record 12 years; designing the Irish Olympic team uniform for the 2004 Athens Olympics and designing the uniforms for the wives of the European Ryder Cup team from 2006 to 2011.
The Dublin-born couturier, who first left Ireland at the age of 19 to "live off tins of ravioli" in Paris, soon became a royal favourite and designed many of Princess Diana's outfits.
Before he established himself as a world renowned designer, Costelloe was selling Bibles in Northern Ireland at the age of 15.
